[PLUG] Need Help Regarding GPL

[Abhijit Bhopatkar]

On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 9:27 PM, Devendra Laulkar
<devendralaulkar at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>>    1. Can i change logo and/or softwarename
>> of a Open Source software (of
>>    course after customization)?
>
> Yes.

In fact if the original name is tread marked you _have_ to, even if
you don't make any changes....
Centos had to do the same with RHEL redistribution. (and to similar
extent the old pc quest linux  series was simply sed replaced RedHat
desktop for most of its parts).


>>    2. The credit to the of software has to
>> go to the original community,
>>    which can be managed in help & code
>> files, is it compulsory that original
>>    community's name should be displayed on
>> visible locations (like home page or
>>    footers etc.)?
>
> Yes, you have to give credit back to the original community. You will also have to state the changes that you have made to the code. I think the best way would be to retain the name of the community wherever it already exists.
>

Wrong.... well atleast partially. It completely depends on the license used.
For  GPL license you don't need to give any credit, all that is
required is to keep the license intact and provide the sources with
the distribution (ok ok ok license purists... you can also simply
offer to do so in writing along with the binaries).
For original BSD license, it required attribution to original author.
In any case you _can_ not claim endorsement, even if you haven't
changed anything.
So if you market openoffice, don't put words like "backed by SUN
Microsystems." in the advertisement.




-- 
BAIN / अभिज़ित
http://abhijit.adotout.net